A candid examination of right-wing policies and the Democrats who play along and the horrid liberal policies designed to assuage the moderates but end up irritating everyone. And other stuff. And now, Authorized and paid for, Soglin for Mayor,Scott Herrick Treasurer. Yeah.

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December 19, 2011

A well known on-line store is apparently asking customers going into brick and mortar stores to use the company's smart phone price-check app to receive a discount on a product that could have been purchased in the local store. It's a great reminder that although we all want to save money when we can during the holidays and beyond, we need to support our local businesses.

There are a number of promotions in Madison to do just that and I encourage you to participate. Remember this past summer when so many people worked together to shop and eat at establishments on Willy Street to support business during the construction? We can, and should do it again and expand our efforts to other neighborhoods as well.

Consider the stores on State Street, Willy Street, Monroe, Atwood and others. They are destinations for thousands all year round. You can find unique items and get to know the shop owner and employees who may very well be your neighbors. Those neighborhoods and store fronts have been redeveloped at great expense and are a source of pride for Madison. We need those stores, boutiques and restaurants to provide the unique character and charm of which we are proud.

Part of the distinctive character of State Street and others is a result of the restrictions on the size of the businesses. The stores are more narrow and chain stores generally don't consider them, as they are too small. It's a character of the street that I support and appreciate. It is part of what makes Madison special. If we don't support those stores though, now and year around, they won't be here to appreciate.

Join me in taking some time away from the computer and heading out to businesses that are uniquely Madison. You won't be disappointed!

December 06, 2011

I want to add my congratulations to Barbara A. Bitters and Angela Byars-Winston for their recognition as 'Champions of Change" These outstanding women will also be featured in the White House website at http://whitehouse.gov/champions.

WASHINGTON, DC – On Friday, December 9th, twelve local leaders in the effort to recruit and retain girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields will be honored at the White House as Champions of Change. These men and women, who include teachers, industry leaders, students, and non-profit leaders, have each taken great strides to reduce the barriers that drive many girls and women to turn away from high-paying, highly rewarding careers as the Nation’s top innovators.

“These ‘Champions of Change’ are community heroes, helping to build the ranks of women in the Nation’s STEM workforce and ensuring that America’s science and engineering enterprise is fueled by the diverse talents of all of its citizens,” said Dr. John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “The bold work of these Champions epitomizes the President’s vision of an ‘all hands on deck’ effort by government, academia, non-profits, and industry to maintain America’s leadership in STEM fields for decades to come.”

The Champions of Change program was created as a part of President Obama’s Winning the Future initiative. Each week, a different issue is highlighted and groups of Champions, ranging from educators to entrepreneurs to community activists, are recognized for the work they are doing to better their communities.

Barbara A. Bitters is the Assistant Director for the Career and Technical Education Team at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (www.dpi.wi.gov). Barbara is both the state leader of the Wisconsin Girl's Collaborative Project (www.ngcproject.org) and the co-leader of the Wisconsin STEM Equity Pipeline Project under the auspices of the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity Education Foundation (NAPE) (www.stemequitypipeline.org). As the leader for these two projects her focus has been to develop and refine strategies and activities that attract, serve, and support the success of girls/women and other under-represented groups to build STEM skills and to explore STEM Careers. She was the state Sex Equity Coordinator under federal vocational education requirements U.S for over 12 years. In 1980, Barbara, under an intergovernmental exchange program, served in the Department of Education as a Special Advisor on Women’s Issues and Vocational Equity to the Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education. She was co-director of the National Leadership Development Conference for Vocational Sex Equity Coordinators from 1979-1987.Barbara is a Past Chair of the Association for Gender Equity Leadership in Education (AGELE) (www.agele.org) and is on the Executive Committee of the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) (www.napequity.org).

Angela Byars-Winston, Ph.D. is a counseling psychologist and Associate Professor (tenure track) in the University of Wisconsin Department of Medicine, section of General Internal Medicine and the UW Center for Women’s Health Research. Her research examines cultural influences on academic and career development, especially for racial and ethnic minorities and women in the sciences, engineering, and medicine with the aim of broadening their participation in STEM. Dr. Byars-Winston has translated her research into evidence-based, culturally-relevant interventions to increase the persistence of underrepresented groups in STEM, working with middle school students to early career professionals. She is currently Principal Investigator for an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to measure the impact of mentored research experiences on career outcomes for diverse undergraduates in biology and biomedical science and co-Investigator of another NIH grant to promote retention of racial and ethnic minority doctoral students in the biological and behavioral sciences. In addition, Dr. Byars-Winston is a member of the STEM Equity Pipeline National Advisory Board, the Wisconsin Career Development Association Executive Committee, and the National Career Development Association Diversity Committee. She is a graduate of San Diego State University (bachelor’s and master’s degrees) and Arizona State University (doctoral degree).

December 03, 2011

A five-member screening committee of Negro league baseball historians, appointed by the Hall of Fame's Board of Directors, has selected a slate of Negro leagues and pre-Negro leagues candidates for consideration for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Then on February 27, 2006 a special 12 member voting committee of historians will meet in Tampa to vote none, one, or more into the Hall of Fame. There are 39 candidates.

This special ballot is profound for two reasons. First it provides an opportunity for some great ballplayers to get fair consideration for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Secondly, the voting will be conducted by a dozen of the most knowledgeable men and women in regards to Negro League history.

While there were special elections in the past, and elections by the "Old Timers Committee," Negro League players, slighted during the height of their careers continue to be slighted after they ran their last base.

Election to the Hall of Fame will not be easy. Fortunately there is no artificial limit on the number of players that can enter the Hall of fame through this ballot. However, to make it to Cooperstown, the player must receive a three quarters vote, or nine of the twelve committee members. Considering the members have greatly differing areas of expertise, although some have co-written books together, most are academics with strong opinions, so nine votes could be very tough for any candidate to accumulate.

I have a special interest in the outcome, having railed for years about the injustice done to one player who should have been elected long ago.

His real name is Saturino Orestes Armas Minoso y Arrieta, born in Havana, Cuba, November 29, 1922.

Bill James considers Minnie Minoso the 85th best player in the history of the game:

Minoso didn't get to play in the majors until he was 28 years old, but had a better career after age 28 than almost any Hall of Fame left/right fielder. Minoso hit for power, drove in 100 runs like clockwork, was a Gold Glove outfielder and one of the best baserunners of his time. Had he gotten the chance to play in the Majors when he was 21 years old, I think he'd probably be rated among the top thirty players of all time.

Minoso was in between. He didn't play long enough in the Negro Leagues like Buck Leonard and Josh Gibson, and he did not get to the Majors early, like a 22 year-old Ernie Banks.

He was 21 in 1945 when he played his first fall season of Cuban Baseball with Maraino hitting .294. The next year was he hitting .309 for the New York Cubans. The following season, 1947, Minoso again led the New York Cubans as they captured the Negro National League pennant and easily defeated the Cleveland Buckeyes to win the Negro League World Series. In that Series, Minoso was the offensive star, batting over .400.

I first saw Minoso play against Boston at Comiskey Park in 1952, the second of three consecutive years that he led the American League in stolen bases with 22. By that time Minoso was a star by anyone's standards.

The closest I ever got to Minoso was in 1954. The Chicago White Sox stayed at the Piccadilly Hotel, just two blocks from my home. Once the season started, every day after school we headed to the Piccadilly about 3:30 pm. The White Sox would be returning from the day game by 4:00 pm. Every White Sox player stayed at the Piccadilly except for two. Jack Harshmann had his entire family with him and lived in an apartment about a mile away.

Minoso drove up to the hotel in his dark green Cadillac convertible; it was a '54 El Dorado. He dropped off the first of the great Venezuelan shortstops, Chico Carrasquel, and then headed further south. Word was that he lived somewhere near 63rd Street.

Minoso was black. He was the first black Cuban to play in the Major Leagues. He was the first black Latin player.

From 1954 until 1960, my last summer hanging around the hotel, I never saw a black, man or woman, ball player or not, go through the front doors of the Piccadilly Hotel. In places like Baltimore, or Boston, or in the deep south during spring training things were worse:

The Pyramid Hotel in Tampa is a quite modest upstairs establishment in a somewhat less than fashionable district. This was the spring training home of Minoso and his Negro teammates Bob Boyd, Connie Johnson, and Earl Battey. Sport Magazine, August, 1954, p91.

Rob Neyer says:

It’s fairly safe to assume, though, that if Minoso had grown up in Georgia with pale skin rather than in Cuba with dark skin, he’d have reached the major leagues three or four years before he did. Let’s be conservative, and give Minoso four more seasons. He was good for approximately 175 hits per season, and 175 times four is 700 hits. Add 700 to 1,963, and you get 2,663 hits.There are, to be sure, players with more than 2,663 hits who aren’t in the Hall of Fame. But I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody with 2,663 hits and Minoso’s broad base of skills who hasn’t been elected or won’t be. Bill James rates Minoso as the 10th-greatest left fielder ever, and I think that’s just about right.

Some say Minoso was born in 1925. It doesn't make a bit of difference. It would have meant three fewer potential seasons in the majors. He didn't need the three years. Minoso languished for two years in the minors once Cleveland signed him in 1949. They didn't understand his style of baseball-speed, hustle, and potentially leading the majors with hit by pitches was not a white 'Yankee' thing.

In 1951 he played his first full season, and by all rights, should have been named Rookie of the Year. That cannot be fixed. The special committee can fix Minoso's long overdue induction into the Hall of Fame. This fall, Minoso saw something he always dreamed about and never thought would happen in his lifetime-the White Sox winning a World Championship.

This committee can make sure Minoso lives to see his induction into the Hall of Fame. He is a man of great talent and character, who while overlooked during his prime, was among the best.

December 02, 2011

This Minoso post originally appeared February 12, 2006. Once again Minoso may be overlooked. I have followed the discussions and even Bob Costas misses the point. You cannot look at only his major league career. Minoso had a great run for the New York Cubans with a smashing World Series in 1947.

Doug Moe's column Friday described my recent lunch with Greg Bond, a UW PhD candidate who has a vote in this month's special election for the Baseball Hall of Fame:

THE OTHER day at J.T. Whitney's restaurant and brew pub, former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin did a little lobbying.

This was nothing new for Soglin, of course. In his two long stints as mayor he often fought to get Madison a fair shake from some of the rubes in the Legislature, who often seemed reluctant to share state revenues with the city.

At this recent lunch, however, the stakes for Soglin were infinitely higher than merely ensuring Madison's financial stability.

This was about getting Minnie Minoso in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

Soglin's table mates that day included UW-Madison cable TV expert Barry Orton, who edits Soglin's blog. A few recent blog entries have been devoted to Minnie Minoso and his deserving a spot in the Hall of Fame.

The third man at the table was a Madison resident who will actually have a say in whether or not Minoso makes the hall.

Later this month, in Tampa, Fla., Greg Bond will be one of 12 experts on African-American baseball players who will vote up or down on 39 Hall of Fame candidates from the old Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues baseball teams. Minoso is one of the 39. Players getting at least nine of the 12 votes will be officially enshrined into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

How Bond, who is in graduate school in American history at UW-Madison, became expert enough to sit on such a prestigious committee - the non-voting chairman is former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent - is an interesting tale.

At 33, Bond is the youngest member of the committee. He first fell under baseball's spell while growing up in Vero Beach, Fla. - the winter home of the Los Angeles Dodgers - and he first got interested in the old-time African-American players when he read David Zang's book, "Fleet Walker's Divided Heart: The Life of Baseball's First Black Major Leaguer."

Ask baseball fans who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball and most everyone will name Jackie Robinson. In fact, it was Moses "Fleetwood" Walker, who in 1884 played 42 games for the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association, which was then recognized as a major league.

Still, baseball - reflecting society - remained largely segregated and, by the 1890s, segregationists had carried the day. The Negro League Baseball Players Association Web site notes the following: "During the 1890s, most professional black players were limited to playing in exhibition games on 'colored' teams on the barnstorming circuit."

In 1920, Rube Foster organized the first black professional baseball league and Foster is known as the father of black baseball.

Greg Bond's interest lay in the Fleet Walker era - the more obscure black players from pre-1900. He wrote his UW-Madison master's thesis on them and, in doing his research, Bond corresponded with and got to know the top experts in the United States on black baseball. In time, Bond himself became a leading expert on the pre-1900 era. He is now working on his Ph.D.

Recently, the Hall of Fame received a grant of $250,000 from Major League Baseball to try to determine if any deserving Negro League or pre-Negro League ballplayers missed being inducted when the hall's Veterans Committee began considering them for induction in the 1970s (the great Josh Gibson, for instance, was inducted in 1972).

A screening committee settled on 39 potential candidates, one of whom is Minnie Minoso, who had a great career in both the Negro Leagues and later with the Chicago White Sox. Paul Soglin, as mentioned, believes passionately that Minoso should be in the hall. He hit for power, stole bases and was a gifted outfielder.

On his blog, Soglin writes poignantly of first seeing Minoso play at Comiskey Park in 1952. Soglin was just a kid but knew he was witnessing greatness.

Soglin continued: "The closest I ever got to Minoso was in 1954. The Chicago White Sox stayed at the Piccadilly Hotel, just two blocks from my home. Once the season started, every day after school we headed up to the Piccadilly about 3:30 p.m. The White Sox would be returning from the day game by 4 p.m. Every White Sox player stayed at the Piccadilly except for two. Jack Harshmann had his entire family with him and lived in an apartment about a mile away.

"Minoso drove up to the hotel in his dark green Cadillac convertible; it was a '54 El Dorado. He dropped off the first of the great Venezuelan shortstops, Chico Carrasquel, and then headed further south. Word was that he lived somewhere near 63rd Street.

"Minoso was black. He was the first black Cuban to play in the major leagues. He was the first black Latin player.

"From 1954 until 1960, my last summer hanging around the hotel, I never saw a black, man or woman, ballplayer or not, go through the front doors of the Piccadilly Hotel."

Around the holidays, Barry Orton was on the Internet when he learned that one of the 12 people who will meet Feb. 25 in Tampa was a Ph.D. candidate at UW-Madison. The meeting at Whitney's was arranged. During lunch, Soglin produced and passed around Minoso's 1954 White Sox contract. Soglin had bought it on eBay.

"Did he press you to vote for Minoso?" Bond was asked recently.

"He did a little advocating," Bond recalled.

Greg Bond will decide how to vote for himself, of course. He's looking forward to his weekend in Tampa. There will be discussions Saturday and Sunday and finally a vote. A press conference is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 27 with Fay Vincent presiding, where the results will be announced. Most likely, Paul Soglin will have never been more nervous about an election - even one of his own.

I hate to disagree with my good friend Doug, but the 2004 election made me much more nervous than any of my races: after four years of George W, I feared the worst was yet to come from an administration that would never have to face the voters again...

December 01, 2011

The critical question for any TIF project is “Will it be a good investment for the City and for the taxing jurisdictions in the District?”

The $16 million TIF assistance for the Edgewater was far too expensive when measured by the public cost and the return to the taxpayers in terms of project value and its beneficial impact to the surrounding area. In addition, the Edgewater TIF compared poorly to other major city TIF projects designed to revitalize the Capitol Square and the downtown.

City policy adopted in 2009 supports giving a project up to 50% of the incremental property taxes that the project generates during the life of the tax increment district. Based on this formula, a TIF of $3.3 million is justified, not the $16 million of tax incremental financing approved by the city council in 2010 to pay for Edgewater project costs. The $16 million approved for the Edgewater is almost five times the amount of TIF recommended by City policy.

The city of Madison does make exceptions to the “50% rule” when the project demonstrates added value to the community. Two such projects were Capitol Square Block 89 and the Hilton Hotel on Wilson Street. Both projects spurred additional development, including 100’s of units of owner occupied housing that did not receive TIF assistance, and that changed the face of the downtown as well as the revitalization of the Main-King area, once plagued with crime and prostitution.

Not only did the Edgewater demand a very high amount of TIF assistance, it was not consistent with City plans for the Mansion Hill historic residential neighborhood, and was unlikely to generate additional development in the Mansion Hill Historic District. To the east is Mansion Hill, to the west Langdon Street with student and Greek housing, to the south is a well developed area with churches, recently renovated buildings, and historic homes, and to the north is Lake Mendota. There is only one signiifcant property in the area that might benefit from the Edgewater TIF, and that is the adjacent Lake Mendota lot owned by National Guardian Life Insurance.

The full tax increment to be derived from the Edgewater Hotel is $6.6 million, not the $16 million of TIF funds approved by the Common Council. That means the remaining $9.4 million must come from other property tax growth in the District, including the new University Square building on the 700 block of University Ave. There is no TIF in the history of the city where the majority of the payback came from other properties in the district, not from the development getting the TIF assistance.

The Edgewater developer cited creation of public access as a major reason for the $16 million TIF. In fact, the public has had access rights at the Edgewater since 1965 and the public access rights required for the 2010 Edgewater project were very limited. The so-called ‘public space’ was subject to these restrictions:

-The hotel had the right to close and restrict access to the majority of the usable rooftop space 365 days a year.

-Public access rights were not required to be posted so the public would know these rights existed.

-The public access agreement says the use of food and beverages in the public access areas shall be limited to reasonable personal and individual use and shall not be allowed for group or multi-person consumption. Carry in of alcoholic beverages by the public was prohibited.